rogue27 wrote:I was hoping for an online Pick-A-Brick as well. (snip) BTW, online Pick-A-Brick would not hurt BrickLink much because TLC would probably charge more and they would have a more limited part selection than BL.

Personally I like BL, but I would love to see a PAB online that would offer some specific parts that I dont think should cost as much as they do on BL.
for instance this:
should NOT cost an arm and a leg for a grey one. Even a new grey. last time I checked that part cost about 6.00 EACH on BL.
Now I know there is no guarantee that PAB online would have a cool selection including something like that, (and in fact the odds against it are high) but the chances are much better that if TLC DID, you wouldnt have to sell your firstborn to get a bunch... unless you wanted to.

I live by 3 PAB's, and I still spend more at BrickLink, but if it wasn't for the PAB's I'd spend even more. Let's say there was a PAB online, I say it's safe to assume that the PAB online would have a selection as good as the one at LEGOLand California, if it's online, and TLC is running it, it shouldn't be out of the question. So, with that well stocked of a PAB with rock bottom prices (price for a pair of black minifig legs at LEGOLand's PAB is 2.5 cents, on BrickLink it's 20 cents), most basic bricks and whatever special elements they have will be purchased there. So now BL is just used for specialty pieces and old pieces. Which isn't too bad. Except for the fact that small stores rely on the sales of basic bricks. That's their bread and butter. Let's face it, buying 3 specialty pieces of 40 cents each won't cut it. So they can't compete with the big stores even more. Big stores will start charging more for specialty pieces because they have to make up for the loss of parting out a set and not being able to sell those basic bricks for how much they were getting before. An online PAB would be just like LEGO opening up a BrickLink shop. Selling at the lowest prices because they make the stuff. Being very trust worthy for new buyers because they are LEGO. Who can compete? It doesn't matter how many sets of 7998 a store parts out, because when LEGO needs more, they call up the factory floor and go "Hey! We need more tan 1 x 4's!" End of BrickLink.

I'm not saying an Online PAB would be bad for us. Heck I'd save cash on gas. But I know for some BrickLinkers, it will hit close to home. Just like you all are saying now, even if for some reason TLC charges more for their stuff, you won't seem to mind much.

Remember about six months ago there was a huge survey about what sorts of parts and colors would be most desired. Jake at the time hinted that this would be for some sort of on-line pick-a-brick or bricklink type store. I'm still holding out hope.

Bricklink will still thrive, I'm sure. No such store from LEGO will ever give the complete coverage that hundreds of AFOLS get buying sets from across the spectrum, including old colors, minifigs, discontinued elements, etc.

David85 wrote:The survey, which not that many people did, was to see what Bulk sets people wanted most.

Actually David, over 2000 people took the survey which isn't bad as it was only aimed at AFOL's and had a short run time. Each person could enter up to 10 favorite parts, meaning up to 20,000 possible entries in total (I think the final total came closer to 15,000).